As time passes, Skulduggery finds it more and more difficult to stay in one piece. At first, he doesn't even realise it; so many facets of his existence need completely different kinds of control that he barely notices when something goes wrong until it goes really wrong. But as the sun rises on the sixth day of moving the turtle, he notices he's expending a lot of his energy (mental energy? physical energy? he was never actually clear on that) just to stay, for lack of a better word, alive.

Then the shellquake ripples across the turtle. Skulduggery was several metres in the air at the time to get a better vantage point. He felt the vibrations through the air, but didn't have enough time to react before his magic faltered and he fell to the ground.

Then he picks himself up and walks away before realising anything is missing.

The result? An hour or two later, Skulduggery's wandering through the brush, searching for his right arm, which he imagines must have popped out of his shoulder socket when he fell. The problem is that he's not sure exactly where he fell. So he's just wandering.